CHAP. V. The varietie of the compasse and walls of the citie.
VVHen the Romans one while made warre upon their neighbor nations of Italie, and other∣whiles defended themselves against their violence, it hapned for the most part that they got the upper hand, and ever as they vanquished any and subdued them under their sub∣jection, in the end made them cittizens of Rome: by which occasion, the cittie built by Romulus, was not sufficient to receive so great a multitude. Tullus therefore after his conquest of the Sabines and Albanes, laid to the citie the mountain Coelius and the Esquiliae, & so enlarged it. After∣wards, when Politorium was woon, and a number of the inhabitants translated to Rome; Ancus made a second enlargement of the citie, and granted these new commers the mount Aventine to inhabite. The old Romanes therfore dwelt in Palatine; the Sabines in Capitolium; the Albanes in Coelius; and this new-come multitude in Aventine. But after the Latines also were received into the citie, they joined Ianiculus also to the citie by a wodden bridge made over the Tyber; and cast a trench called Fossa Quiritium, about the low & levell places of the citie. So the Trans-tyberine quarter was united to the citie, & made it more spatious & stately: last of all, Servius Tullius by adjoining the hils Vimina∣lis and Quirinalis to the five abovenamed, amplified the cittie. And whereas before it was mounded about with rubbish, and the same rudely laid, Tarquin the prowd was the first that enclosed it with a wall of good ashler stone. And the very same walls which stand at this day, were by the posteritie that followed, repaired and reedified upon the old foundations. But the cittie in old time, when as it flourished in greatest glorie, extended farre more in bounds and compasse. For in Flinies time the circuit therof within the wall contained about 20 miles. But in these daies hardly 12. And the whole compasse of the citie, with the suburbes and buildings about and without the walls (which although they spreadfar, were comprehended yet under the name of citie) in the said Plinies time, was 50 miles.